Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2007 08:41:52 -0700 (PDT)
From: Gene McEnnis
Subject: Infected Heartstrings - Chapter 8
*Disclaimer:* If you are not permitted to read stories of this nature
please refrain from reading further.
No part of this story may be sold or replicated without express permission
of the author.
************************************************************************
Chapter 8
Wade found himself speeding across the open ocean in a lightweight
semi-enclosed transport with a slightly rattled looking Chuck Jameson.
"I hate those damn training sessions, you know," Charles said
finally. He had been quiet for most of the trip but now as he looked over
the vast ocean in the late afternoon light he seemed to come slowly back to
life like re-hydrated bacteria.
"Then why do it?" Wade asked.
Charles looked back to the other man, eyes heavy with exhaustion,
"So you've really never had a tour of the city before huh?" he said,
ignoring Wade's question.
Wade shook his head as he looked out over the front of the ship.
The spray and salty air had a calming effect on his nerves.
"I guess that's what happens when you're the only one to survive
your planet hey?" Charles said.
Wade turned away from the other man, crossing his arms tightly
against his chest.
"So how's training with Kylan going?" Charles asked.
"He mostly just checks in on me here and there," Wade shrugged, "I
should be through the aptitude testing soon and able to start some kind of
service."
Charles slowly raised the transport from the surface of the water
as a large landmass came barrel-assing into view. The front dome of the
transport slid sleekly down to cover the cabin as they picked up speed.
"You know," he said, "I think you're the first person I've ever seen manage
to have a real conversation with Kylan in a long time. Maybe ever."
Wade watched as a maze of teetering buildings came up fast under
the ship as they sped high above the precariously balanced structures
jutting out at odd angles. He hugged his arms tighter, "Really?" he asked.
Charles' tone became more formal as a singular giant pillar loomed
high into view, "Over there," he said, pointing to the immense building
that dwarfed all the others, "That's the main city ring."
Wade could see nothing special about it except for the shower of
light that danced and spun around the tower as it rose higher above into
the clouds. "That huge building is the entire inner city?" he asked
incredulously.
Charles nodded, "Its amazing."
"Really?"
"Just wait till you see the inside."
As they progressed closer to the building, Wade watched the
indistinct spheres of light become clear and crisp.
One sphere of light detached from the rest, speeding forward at an
unbelievable rate. Wade's body instinctively reacted as panic tore quickly
through his system. In an instant he tumbled out of the way as the sphere
passed cleanly through the side of the ship and out the other side. For a
split-second he thought he could see a frumpish looking woman sitting in
the white sphere looking perfectly calm.
"Wade?" Charles called from the front of the ship. "Are you ok
back there?" Wade was cowering in the far corner of the ship, every muscle
tensed and ready to burst, heart hammering in his chest.
"Ahh... Yeah," he said, walking shakily back to the front of the
ship as Charles landed expertly on a platform jutting out from the massive
building. The hum and dim blue glow of the engines slowly died away.
"Relax," Charles looked back to the other man with a half smile,
"that kind of thing happens all the time."
Wade nodded, his body gradually returning normal as the adrenaline
rush from the almost-collision faded. As the two men exited the ship, Wade
noticed that the platform ended abruptly where it butted up against the
building. The wall had no doors of any kind; it was a sheer wall of
interlocking white metal tiles.
"Ahh, how do we -?"
Chuck smirked, holding up a hand. He snapped it twice and a dull
blue sphere appeared from the wall and floated over. "Two please," he said.
Wade watched as the ball shimmered and changed colour, expanding
into a translucent white sphere that twisted open on one side to allow the
men to walk inside. When they stood inside, the sphere once more twisted
shut before rising several feet into the air.
"This is really cool." Charles smiled, touching a floating panel
that appeared to be made of nothing more substantial than light. Wade
watched as the ship and the entire landing platform faded from view only to
soon be replaced by a multitude of floating pictures swirling all around in
a giant spiral.
"Behold the inside of Union city," Charles beamed, gesturing to the
expansive floating array of minute pictures in the distance. The pictures
were hexagonally shaped panels that writhed around in a jumbled maelstrom.
As Wade's eyes surveyed the alien atmosphere around him his head
began to pulsate and ache. "Ugh," he winced, squinting his eyes and
touching his temple gingerly.
"Oh, that's normal," Charles said, touching the controls and moving
their sphere up and along the far side of the massive internal space. "The
city works on similar principles of spatial folding, just like our
interplanetary transport ships. It can make you feel a little sick the few
first times."
Charles touched the again screen and in response the images in the
centre shifted and rearranged to form an interlacing corridor of modules
and pictures in a three-dimensional structure that seemed to hang in thin
air. "We're moving our molecules through various pocket dimensions that
are grounded and moderated by Unity itself." He pointed to a row of shops
and Wade could see people walking inside and browsing through objects of
all sizes and shapes. "We can arrange any combination of dimensional
segments with a flick of the controls and move through them at our
leisure."
Wade's stomach lurched. He felt sick.
"It's really quite amazing isn't it?" Charles smiled.
"Y... yeah," Wade swallowed hard. "Ugh. Can we go some place a
little more normal Chuck?"
The other man shrugged, "Sure thing." Charles touched the control
pad and the sphere of light dropped downwards in a loose, spiralling
motion. Wade leaned forward and rested his hand on the cool material of
the transport globe, his other hand clutching his stomach tightly.
As they came to a stop, Wade watched as several hexagonal blooms
rose up and filled his vision. Each shape was translucent and shimmered
with an unnatural light before dancing upwards and spinning quickly. As
the hexagons faded they were replaced one by one by large, gnarled trees
covered in peach blossoms.
Wade stumbled out of the glistening white transport globe and sank
to his knees. "Ugh," he groaned.
Charles shrugged as the module shrank back into a small sphere of
light. He palmed the ball saying, "You'll get used to it."
"I think I'll stick to the outer ring of the city," Wade muttered
as he spat weakly on the ground.
"Sorry? What?" Charles asked, throwing the ball up and catching it
again.
"Never mind." Wade replied, standing slowly back up. "Is there
much left to see on this tour?"
Charles brightened, "Of course," he smiled, "There's the inter
dimensional public gardens, there's the industrial and business
districts. Then there's the museums and of course -"
Wade dropped to his kneeds again and noisily emptied his stomach
all over the crisp green grass. "Maybe something a bit shorter Chuck," he
gasped, his now empty stomach still reflexively clenching as he tried to
speak.
"Well, alright," Charles said slowly, "If that's really what you
want. But first we should go pay Unity a quick visit."
After a second, Wade finally nodded, getting back to his unsteady
feet. While waiting for Charles to work the small sphere, Wade looked out
to the far trees. He could see people walking, running, or simply sitting
and talking amongst the trees. The people looked slightly translucent and
ethereal as they faded slowly, some passing through seemingly solid objects
with ease.
Both men turned and entered the re-expanded transport globe. High
above Wade could still see the ever-swirling mass of hexagonal floating
pictures.
"How do you feed all of these people?" Wade asked as the scene
vanished into millions of little shattered hexagons. The globe sped
quickly upwards, spiralling slightly as it climbed higher and higher with
surprising speed. Wade clutched his stomach as the ship rounded a
particularly perilous loop.
Charles pointed directly upwards. At the top of the tower, Wade
could see a large black dome that was fastened on four sides with another
black material that ran the length of the inside of the tower.
"That black thing?" Wade asked.
"Not that," Charles sighed, rolling his eyes. "There, just beyond
the control centre. You can see the second moon through the dimensionally
shifted outer structure of the tower." The sphere was fast approaching the
top at breakneck speed. "We have a whole system of interconnecting trade
routes that feed resources to us via systems set up on all of our four
moons." Resources are shipped to each of the four moons and they're
slipped through the planetary shielding at regular intervals."
"Isn't that dangerous with the infection spreading to more worlds?"
Wade asked. They had now passed through the solid top of the tower and
were circling the gleaming, black control centre. With each circle they
made, Wade's vision pulsed as new waves of nausea hit him like storm-waves
smashing on a break-water.
"Not really," the other man replied. He touched another function
on the panel and the transport globe drifted silently over to a slight
depression in the black dome. "Unity monitors all of the trade functions
through the spatial folding stations for any signs of infection or
tampering. It's really quite foolproof."
"I bet," Wade said quietly, not fully convinced.
The globe dipped slowly down towards the depression in the dome.
Within moments the sphere passed through the solid gleaming black material
and into an expansive room below. The room had a large central reflective
sphere that was itself partially sunk into the floor. As both men entered
the room the transport globe glittered once before becoming a dull blue
ball in Charles' hand once more. Instead of falling into the room below,
both men slowly glided to the floor.
"This is odd," Wade said, looking around. Above the sphere in the
centre of the room were millions of little threads of light that were being
weaved together before each vanished gradually into the sphere's unbroken
surface.
"This is Unity." Charles gestured at it proudly. "Isn't he
amazing?"
"He?"
"Just wait, you'll see. Unity," he called, smiling. "Unity are you
active?"
Wade looked at the other man quizzically. He was just about to say
something before movement out of the corner of his eye caught his
attention. The interweaved light above the globe flared brightly, each
strand suddenly veering upwards, coalescing in a kaleidoscope of brilliant
colour. The strands formed upwards into a large mass before a pulse of
energy rose quickly up the sphere and through the strands, pulling out
their colour and blasting a brilliant silver light through the room. Wade
put up a hand to shield his eyes from the glare.
"What is your concern?" a hollow voice asked. Wade looked up,
startled by the strange voice. Above the globe floated a hollow being of
light and shadow. Its face was a dull facsimile of humanity with lifeless
circular eyes of golden light and an expressionless mouth. Strands of its
short hair shifted lazily as if caught by a stray current of invisible
water.
"Isn't he beautiful?" Charles whispered, transfixed.
Wade was at a loss for words as he looked at the being floating
before him. "It looks sort of like some of the old sculptures from my
planet," he said finally. As he stared at the creature something at the
back of his mind struggled in vain to break the surface of his thoughts.
Something about Unity looked oddly familiar.
"What is your primary concern?" Unity repeated with a slight
inflection evident in its voice. Its body had an interlacing structure of
silver and dark strands that seemed to hold the creature together. Its
strong humanoid features were blurred slightly and shimmered as Unity
itself gave off a steady and brilliant glow of light.
Charles cleared his throat, "Unity, this is Wade. Wade err..." he
said turning back to the other man.
"...Chartrand," Wade finished for him, smiling slightly.
"Right, right," Charles waved Wade off quickly, "Anyway, can you
give him the quick tour of the city?" he asked, looking expectantly at the
silver humanoid form.
"Understood." Unity nodded once. "Welcome to the planet Nocwen,
forth planet from the central star in the Cereus system." The room
shimmered for a moment as a large number of hexagons appeared from nowhere
and formed an image of the local galaxy. A brilliant star appeared to the
side of the room while Unity's globe became the planet itself. Around the
room, various other planets lazily traced their paths around the sun.
Millions of stars glinted with pinpoint precision in the distance; Wade
could even see many small moons of ice orbiting the nearby planets.
"You are currently in the capital city of Union, within the central
city hub to be precise," the creation of light and shadow continued. "The
city was founded nearly seven hundred solar rotations ago," it continued,
as the room once more changed to become a small-scale representation of
Union city. Wade watched as structures built up from humble beginnings to
the impressive citadel it was now, as if guided by seemingly invisible
hands.
"Amazing," Charles said, almost to himself.
The floating silver being continued, "Union city was created only
within the last century with the addition of the centralized planetary care
system known as Unity. Unity monitors and maintains vital city and
planetary functions and activities. It is the primary and irrevocable
function of Unity to act within the best interests of both the planet and
its inhabitants at all times."
"The many creators of this miraculous creature were a little
strange don't you think, Wade?" Charles said, his arms were folded against
his chest and he was leaning back slightly as if to take in the whole room
all at once.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, they created something so amazing yet they put in foolish
limitations to its programming. I mean, why bother limiting Unity to one
planet?"
"It can't leave?"
Charles nodded, "He can never leave us. I guess that's a good
thing though isn't it? No one can take him from us then."
Wade was only partially listening. He walked through the rapidly
growing city like some kind of gargantuan overseer or destructive monster.
Wade paused, marvelling at what an intact city looked like. Having spent
so long crawling through the decayed ruins of his people, he had almost
forgotten what it looked like - what it felt like. As he passed through
the buildings, his fingers gently slid along the side of a dark building.
Wade was shocked to find it solid and warm. He stopped and looked out over
the landmass, trying in vain to see any sign of the familiar military base
in the distance. His heart constricted and the colouring of his cheeks
rose slightly as his mind wandered for several moments.
The growing city stopped momentarily. One by one, the little
hexagons started dropping from the air, causing the city to shudder and
spasm violently. Wade could see small explosions and flashes of chained
light spark from the structures as the whole city began to implode.
Unity stopped, "Localized system corruption found," it announced.
The silver being sputtered and convulsed above the sphere. The whole
vision crashed, as the original room came back into view the little
hexagons fell to the floor like millions of tiny shards of broken glass,
swiftly disappearing back into the nothingness they had originally come
from.
"Unity!" Charles gaped, "Unity, what's the matter?"
"Local... error... detected," It said slowly. "Rerouting local
projection units, please stand by." The creature itself convulsed once
more before it too exploded into a spray of silver light and hexagons.
Charles sank to his knees, his face pale and words suddenly
uncertain. "This..... this is... This has never happened before," he
said, his voice hoarse.
Wade shifted nervously on his feet, "I..." he paused, "I'm sorry
Charles." Placing a hand on the other man's shoulder, "What'll happen
now?"
"Unity will deal with the problem himself," Charles said in a
strange monotone voice.
"Is there anything we can do to help?"
Charles just stared blankly at the Unity's sphere in the middle of
the room. The multicoloured threads of light were now gone. Instead, the
sphere rippled slowly from top to bottom as if struck by invisible stray
droplets of water.
"I know," Wade said, "Why don't you have a drink with all of us at
the pub? You know, to get your mind off of this?" he said. "I'm sure that
the program will reroute itself like it said."
Charles pulled his shoulder from Wade's touch, "I can't leave at a
time like this!" he snapped.
"But you said it yourself, what can we do?"
"I can stay and wait," he said firmly, placing one hand on the
sphere. He fished the pale blue ball of light from his pocket and threw it
back to Wade. It grew back into the now familiar transport globe as it
sailed through the air. "You can take this back to the pub," he said
through clenched teeth.
"Aren't you coming later?"
"No, he said sharply, "I'm staying here." He turned back to the
sphere, "Tell it to take you to the Officer's bar on Charleston boulevard.
It should go right there."
"Look Charles, you should come and try to relax," Wade offered, but
the other man clearly wasn't listening. Wade shrugged, and climbed into
the globe, which launched itself smoothly into the air and out of the room.
As the globe sped over the building tops Wade's mind kept watching
the city slowly dissolve over and over again.
He was ripped from his thoughts as an alarm sounded loudly inside
of the small transport globe.
"Critical localized error detected," Unity's voice sounded. "All
compromised equipment will cease to function immediately." The globe shook
violently, catapulting Wade back and forth. With one final lurch, Wade
felt it begin to drop at an alarming velocity. His stomach crept up into
his throat as the sphere started to lose its consistency, becoming a
gelatinous falling blob of pale white goo. Gravity was now in full control
and a nearby building loomed precariously quickly into view.
"Oh Shit."
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Author's Note:
Again my thanks to Kane for a fantastic job at making my writing readable :D.
I hope that everyone is enjoying the story so far. Feed back (good or bad)
is always welcome (corporeal09@yahoo.com)
Cheers,
-Gene